There are essentially two types of hitches for towing a load behind a vehicle, the "bumper" type and the "gooseneck" type. In the former, a tow bar assembly or tongue is attached to the tow and to the rear bumper or adjacent under portion of the car or truck. In the latter, in order to avoid the tow from lifting weight from the front wheels of the towing vehicle, a long, cranked arm extends from the tow over and down to the bed of a pickup truck, for instance, and is connected there at a point just above or forward of the truck's rear axle.
So far as known, however, hitches of these two types are not readily interchangeable, that is to say, from bumper to gooseneck type and vice versa. The gooseneck hitch in U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,661, for instance, is removably attached to a bumper-type tow bar and hence must be totally removed in order to use the latter. The same is essentially true of the hitches in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,815,936, 3,796,443, 3,840,252, and 3,889,978. U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,831 discloses a rather elaborate arrangement using at the same time a gooseneck type hitch and a pair of links connecting the tow to the bumper of the towing vehicle but the links themselves are not suitable for use alone and they and the gooseneck would have to be detached before a regular bumper-type hitch could be employed. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,698,740 and 4,261,594 illustrate convertible hitches employing separate detachable portions, each of which is to be removed before the other can be fitted. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,918,744 discloses a gooseneck type hitch whose height can be adjusted for use either on the bed of a truck or on its bumper. But when employed at the bumper the gooseneck, among other disadvantages, impairs the turning radius of the tow.
Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is the provision of a hitch for towing a load which can be readily converted back and forth between conventional bumper and gooseneck types.